Voltaire/Fritz is one of the most quotable frenemies 'ships ever, isn't it? Just for kicks, here's Boswell's transcript from meeting Voltaire when he (Boswell) was grandtouring Europe. Building up to a perfect punchline:
VOLTAIRE: Shakespeare has often two good lines, never six. A madman, by G-d, a buffoon at Bartholommew Fair. No play of his own, all old stories. Chess. “I shall lose, by G-d, by all the saints in Paradise. Ah, here I am risind on a black ram, like a whore as I am. – Falstaff from the Spaniards. BOSWELL: I’ll tell you why we admire Shakespeare. VOLTAIRE: Because you have no taste. BOSWELL: But, Sir – VOLTAIRE: Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos – all Europe is against you. So you are wrong. BOSWELL: But this is because we have the most grand imagination. VOLTAIRE: The most wild. (…) BOSWELL: What do you think of our comedy? VOLTAIRE: A great deal of wit, a great deal of plot, and a great deal of bawdy-houses. (…) BOSWELL: Johnson is a most orthodox man, but very learned; has much genius and much worth. VOLTAIRE: He is then a dog. A superstitious dog. No worthy man was ever superstitious. BOSWELL: He said the King of Prussia wrote like your footboy. VOLTAIRE. He is a sensible man.
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Re: The anecdotes, they never stop
Date: 2019-08-21 05:36 am (UTC)VOLTAIRE: Shakespeare has often two good lines, never six. A madman, by G-d, a buffoon at Bartholommew Fair. No play of his own, all old stories.
Chess. “I shall lose, by G-d, by all the saints in Paradise. Ah, here I am risind on a black ram, like a whore as I am. –
Falstaff from the Spaniards.
BOSWELL: I’ll tell you why we admire Shakespeare.
VOLTAIRE: Because you have no taste.
BOSWELL: But, Sir –
VOLTAIRE: Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos – all Europe is against you. So you are wrong.
BOSWELL: But this is because we have the most grand imagination.
VOLTAIRE: The most wild.
(…)
BOSWELL: What do you think of our comedy?
VOLTAIRE: A great deal of wit, a great deal of plot, and a great deal of bawdy-houses. (…)
BOSWELL: Johnson is a most orthodox man, but very learned; has much genius and much worth.
VOLTAIRE: He is then a dog. A superstitious dog. No worthy man was ever superstitious.
BOSWELL: He said the King of Prussia wrote like your footboy.
VOLTAIRE. He is a sensible man.